Hey - how is your ankle? I think you string for the team right? Do you mean getting paid for that versus as a side job in the summer? I don't know answers, but it may make a difference.

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Getting paid for stringing for the team.

My ankle is almost back to 100%, I haven't updated the other thread because of the multitude of other injuries that have occurred this summer... Kind of disheartening to come to a tennis forum when you aren't playing no where near 100%. I will update it later today or later this week when I get time.

Everyone, please do not rely on Google or Talk Tennis for information like this. Contact the Compliance Department in the AD's office and present all the facts.

Even on D3 teams, I think there should be good enough communication among coaches, players, and administrators that it does not become necessary to rely on Google or TT for answers to NCAA compliance questions.

Everyone, please do not rely on Google or Talk Tennis for information like this. Contact the Compliance Department in the AD's office and present all the facts.

Even on D3 teams, I think there should be good enough communication among coaches, players, and administrators that it does not become necessary to rely on Google or TT for answers to NCAA compliance questions.

Everyone, please do not rely on Google or Talk Tennis for information like this. Contact the Compliance Department in the AD's office and present all the facts.

Even on D3 teams, I think there should be good enough communication among coaches, players, and administrators that it does not become necessary to rely on Google or TT for answers to NCAA compliance questions.

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I contacted my coach who contacted the AD of my school. He told her to tell me that "There is a rule about that and he should look it up and figure it out." That is paraphrasing, but yeah.

I contacted my coach who contacted the AD of my school. He told her to tell me that "There is a rule about that and he should look it up and figure it out." That is paraphrasing, but yeah.

Thank you very much for the link though.

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So you are saying that at Rochester Institute of Technology, if an athlete has a question about NCAA compliance, the AD advises the athlete to come to a determination about legality on his own? Or maybe it was unique that just you got the brush-off.

Even for a D3 school that doesn't award athletic scholarships, the first word that comes to mind is "appalling".

At D1 programs that I am familiar with, the Compliance Director convenes a "Compliance Team Meeting", or whatever, prior to the start of practice to go over rules and answer questions. My experience is that athletes are advised and encouraged to contact the Compliance Department whenever they think there might be the remotest possibility of an issue.

For all college athletes out there, if you think there might be an issue, get clearance from the Compliance Dept. If the AD tells you to buzz off, don't engage in the questioned activity............and be prepared for your program, I don't know when, but someday, to suffer compliance problems

So you are saying that at Rochester Institute of Technology, if an athlete has a question about NCAA compliance, the AD advises the athlete to come to a determination about legality on his own? Or maybe it was unique that just you got the brush-off.

Even for a D3 school that doesn't award athletic scholarships, the first word that comes to mind is "appalling".

At D1 programs that I am familiar with, the Compliance Director convenes a "Compliance Team Meeting", or whatever, prior to the start of practice to go over rules and answer questions. My experience is that athletes are advised and encouraged to contact the Compliance Department whenever they think there might be the remotest possibility of an issue.

For all college athletes out there, if you think there might be an issue, get clearance from the Compliance Dept. If the AD tells you to buzz off, don't engage in the questioned activity............and be prepared for your program, I don't know when, but someday, to suffer compliance problems

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I am thinking it is the latter. Tennis at RIT is kind of bottom rung, IN MY OPINION, since both of our men's and women's hockey teams are D1.

We do have a meeting like that, but it is a large group meeting with all of the RIT teams.

I read through the link that you posted and found this:
"You are not eligible in any sport if, after you become a student-athlete, you accept
any pay for promoting a commercial product or service or allow your name or picture
to be used for promoting a commercial product or service. [Bylaws 12.5.2.1 and
12.5.2.2]"

I probably do not understand it fully, but I believe that this rule is for service outside of the school. I think in my case here it is referring to running a stringing business out of my apartment, but as I said, I may not be understanding the rule fully.

kenny are you a great stringer ? high level players are very picky about their string jobs. lol

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I am no where near P1 level stringing, and I have never said that. I consider myself to be a good stringer, though, and I have strung my fair share of racquet since starting four years ago. I still have a lot more to learn, but I don't think it is fair for one person, me, to go through 70+ hours of stringing on a drop weight machine and not even have it recognized as work study by the school.

In all fairness to the OP, The section on Employment Earnings isn't very clear when it comes to something like stringing teammates racquets. Those 3 sub-rules are created so that a SA can't take a job at a car dealer who uses the athletes names in ads. Also SAs have to perform actual work for realistic wages, not just No-Show jobs.

What he needs to ask his AD is whether he can do $20 string jobs for his teammates and be paid by the team's budget on a regular basis. Most schools I know of would probably say no. They buy string for the team in bulk and let the players and coaches use a team owned machine. Don't know if this is how it is at RIT or not.

In all fairness to the OP, The section on Employment Earnings isn't very clear when it comes to something like stringing teammates racquets. Those 3 sub-rules are created so that a SA can't take a job at a car dealer who uses the athletes names in ads. Also SAs have to perform actual work for realistic wages, not just No-Show jobs.

What he needs to ask his AD is whether he can do $20 string jobs for his teammates and be paid by the team's budget on a regular basis. Most schools I know of would probably say no. They buy string for the team in bulk and let the players and coaches use a team owned machine. Don't know if this is how it is at RIT or not.

I have my opinion about this too, but I'm not going to substitute my judgment for that of the athlete's compliance department and express it here.

I think the lesson to be learned here is not whether stringing rackets for pay at a D3 is consistent with NCAA rules......I think the lesson should be to go to Compliance whenever there is an issue

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The school (tennis team budget) paid $10 per racket. This is no different then someone stringing on their own time for a club or something. As long as the student actually does the work and it isn't some sort of scam to pay players, it shouldn't be a problem.

The school (tennis team budget) paid $10 per racket. This is no different then someone stringing on their own time for a club or something. As long as the student actually does the work and it isn't some sort of scam to pay players, it shouldn't be a problem.

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Maybe I am wrong, but it seems to me Rochester Institute of Technology is not willing to pay Kenny. If they were, there wouldn't be an issue, would there?

If Kenny is trying to induce them to pay by getting advice on TalkTennis that it is not an NCAA violation to pay......well he knows what makes the AD move more than we do, good luck with that.

Guess the teammates aren't willing to fork over to Kenny either. I stand to be corrected on any of this.

As others have mentioned, the school should have a compliance officer that would be in charge of clearing this situation in relation to NCAA rules. Seems weird that the AD would push the question back to the athlete, unless he was caught off guard, didn't understand the question, or was just being lazy.

On a personal note, when I was college, I was the #1 player on my NAIA team and had a small athletic scholarship (I think it was $1,500 per semester). I also had a part-time job working directly for the athletic department at $7 per hour, plus benefits. My job consisted of managing a team of student workers that performed game day operations for basketball and volleyball events. Outside of these events, I would also fill in for professors in teaching PE classes when needed, was an assistant director for the athletic camps in the summer, and other assignments as needed by the AD and coaching staff. It's the best/funnest job I ever had, and all of this work was legit.

However, what was odd was the Spring time, when the tennis season started in earnest. The assistant AD was the main person I reported to, and he was also the tennis coach. Once the dual matches got started, my athletic department job consisted mainly of stringing racquets for the team, driving us to matches, and practicing my serve!!! That's right, sometimes I would report for work, and my boss would say "I don't have anything for you to do, so please take this basket of balls and go hit serves for a couple hours!"

I can't believe I got paid for that, and I'm sure it was some sort of rule violation... but that was a long time ago ('91-'95), and it didn't seem like a big deal. (Besides, it's not like we ever contended for a national title. But my serve did get pretty solid!)

I am thinking it is the latter. Tennis at RIT is kind of bottom rung, IN MY OPINION, since both of our men's and women's hockey teams are D1.

We do have a meeting like that, but it is a large group meeting with all of the RIT teams.

I read through the link that you posted and found this:
"You are not eligible in any sport if, after you become a student-athlete, you accept
any pay for promoting a commercial product or service or allow your name or picture
to be used for promoting a commercial product or service. [Bylaws 12.5.2.1 and
12.5.2.2]"

I probably do not understand it fully, but I believe that this rule is for service outside of the school. I think in my case here it is referring to running a stringing business out of my apartment, but as I said, I may not be understanding the rule fully.

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Is the commercial product or service referring to your own, or to you endorsing someone else's product? What is promotion? An ad? Is working for yourself or anybody else a "promotion?"

If your AD asked you to find out for yourself, he is not being responsible. Maybe you should send an email to his boss and ask him if it isn't his job to help in this.

Please get a clear answer so you do not get caught up later on, had a young lady who was a professor assistant while playing tennis and got paid minimum wage, but had to repay all money as NCAA prohibits work during the school year, paraphrasing but other players might be able to answer, this may only pertain to scholarship players though.

Please get a clear answer so you do not get caught up later on, had a young lady who was a professor assistant while playing tennis and got paid minimum wage, but had to repay all money as NCAA prohibits work during the school year, paraphrasing but other players might be able to answer, this may only pertain to scholarship players though.

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Your statement that the NCAA prohibits work during the school year is contrary to the provisions of the rules stated in this link. See section 4.

It was probably pre-1997 when SAs were not allowed to work during the calendar year. There was an outcry that there would be less violations of cash handouts if kids were allowed to have jobs. Then the no-show jobs started and they closed that loop hole around 1999.

Kenny022593, I have absolutely nothing to add to this, except that I graduated from RIT in '93 (Imaging Science) and played on the tennis team in '91 & '92. In fact, I grew up in Rochester (Chili, to be exact) & have family that still lives there (my in-laws live across from the school, just off River Road).

If you think tennis is bottom rung now, you should have seen it 20 years ago. We had to play some matches in a bubble right next to the old ice arena. It had lines for tennis, basketball, volleyball & a few other sports. The basketball hoops hung over the service line, so you had to slide a few feet right & left when serving or your toss would hit the rim. We used orange balls because the lighting was so bad, you couldn't see yellow ones.